Two long scoring droughts doomed the Centre men's basketball team, as the Colonels fell 72-58 to Rhodes in a Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference game Sunday in Memphis, Tenn.

Centre got off to a hot start and led by as many as 10 points early, but the game slipped away when the Colonels went the final 6:16 without scoring before halftime and suffered another seven minute scoreless streak early in the second half.

Centre jumped out to an early lead when Bryon Ellis (Russell Springs, Ky.) connected three times from beyond the arc in the first five minutes, and the Colonels went on to build on that lead with a 10-2 run that put them up 19-9.

Centre still held a 28-22 lead at the 6:00 mark after consecutive baskets by Greg Ross (Cincinnati, Ohio), but that was when things began to go south. The Colonels went 0-for-9 from the field over those final six minutes while Rhodes put together a 9-0 run and took a 31-28 lead to the break.

Ross buried a jumper to open the second half, but Centre went cold again, this time going 7:34 without scoring while Rhodes went on a 14-0 run. By the time the stretch was over, Rhodes led 45-30 with just under 12 minutes to play.

Though the teams played relatively evenly the rest of the way with Centre freshman Josh Karsner (Frankfort, Ky.) scoring nine of his game-high 19 points, the damage had been done. The Colonels got as close as 63-53 after a Ross layup with four minutes to go, but Centre never could trim the margin to single digits.

Jeff Mullaney (Louisville, Ky.) followed Karsner in the scoring column for Centre with 12 points while Ross added 11 with a team-high six rebounds. Andrew Galow led Rhodes with 17 points while John Dunavant added 16.

Rhodes shot 48 percent (28-of-58) from the field to Centre's 33 percent (20-of-60), and the Lynx held a 34-24 edge on the glass. Centre connected on 12 of 35 shots from outside while Rhodes shot just 5-of-19.

With the loss, Centre drops to 4-3 overall and 1-1 in SCAC play. Rhodes improves to 5-2 overall and 2-0 in the conference. The Colonels have 11 days off before hosting Birmingham Southern at 8 p.m. on Dec. 16.